On a particular part of Jesus’ journey, he came to an area of the Gadarenes. There, He met a man known to most as the maniac of Gadara. Luke described the man this way:

1. The man was possessed by demons for a long, long time.
2. The man was a nudist. Yup, he was nek-ed. No clothes.
3. The man chose to live in the tombs instead of a house.
4. The people who lived in the area attempted to keep the man chained pretty often.
5. The man was strong enough to break his bands.

Jesus asked the man a question.

“What is thy name?”

The man responded back with one word, “Legion.” The Bible explains this man called himself Legion because there were many devils possessing him.

It’s easy to read this story and think about how crazy this guy must have been. Can you imagine what this guy must have been like?? And to live where the dead people hang out?!

But… was the man really crazy or was he really just like you and me…? We, too, allow sin to rule our bodies, choosing rather to live among the dead of the world than to move to the living. We have the strength available to us through Christ to break the bonds of what we’ve been living in, but we wander away from Christ and anyone else who could make a positive influence. We’d rather stay in our figurative, occupied tombs or go die in our wilderness.

And then when we’ve really buried ourselves under our circumstances and our choices and the effects of those we hang around, someone asks us what our name is. And, even though we know better, we define ourselves by what we’ve been going through rather than the Christ who stands waiting to redeem us from the results of those circumstances. 

What is your name?

What name are you calling yourself? What circumstance are you defining yourself by? What is your name?

For a long time, I chose Silence to be my name. I sat in silence while my family fell apart when I was a child. I sat in silence while I tried to ignore the cruel comments that some teenagers choose to say about other teenagers. I wore my silence as a cloak while I tried to make it through the awful heartache from our broken home. I chose Silence rather than speaking the emotional pain of rejection. My name was Silence.

For a long time, I chose Bitter to be my name. Bitter against a dad who didn’t know how to raise girls, bitter against a God who would take my stepmom, my one hope for normalcy at that point in my life, through cancer, bitter against the way I looked as I compared myself to my truly beautiful friends, bitter against the people who didn’t want to take the time to see a shy girl who didn’t know how to say hello, bitter against heartbreak I felt I didn’t deserve. My name was Bitter.

For a long time, I chose Broken to be my name. I felt because a man had broken my heart that I couldn’t love another person fully anymore, not even God. I did what I was told when I was told to do it and I never once questioned whether obedience without a heart that followed was really what Jesus meant when He said, “Follow me.” I acted out the faith I knew was expected of me, but felt too broken to follow through with the passion a true Christian holds. My name was Broken. 

Oh, my dear girl, what names have you been calling yourself lately? I was Silence. I was Bitter. I was Broken… but Jesus call me Redeemed.

Jesus is calling to you softly: He knows your real name. He doesn’t want to leave you as Silent, Bitter, Broken, or Lonely: He wants to call you Redeemed, Beloved, Wanted, Sanctified, Forgiven, New, and Valued. But He can’t name you against your will: you have to choose your good name.

Proverbs 22:1 tells us, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” It’s so easy to choose our identity based on our circumstances and emotions. It’s so easy to become what has happened to us. But God wants more for you than a mask of a name to hide behind: He has called you to choose to identify with Him as your Saviour.

You can choose to let God name you by letting go of the hurt you’ve felt, you can choose to let God name you by seeking His will and love for you found in His Word, and you can choose to let God name you by not settling in the circumstances around you but rather choosing to keep your thoughts on Him through those circumstances. Just like the maniac of the Gadarenes, you must choose to leave the dead things and bonds behind. You must accept that Christ can redeem that Brokenness you’ve been identifying with. You are more than a victim.

And here’s the really beautiful part of God naming you Redeemed: when you choose to name yourself the names God has chosen for you, you can then use your newfound identity to help others find their way to Jesus as well. Before you choose to live out the new identity you were given in Christ, you couldn’t help others figure out who they really are. You can help them become more than Broken!

John Ortberg put it this way in his book, The Me I Want to Be: “When you fail to become the person God designed, all the rest of us miss out on the gift you were made to give.” 

God offers you a new name: it’s up to you to carry this name into the world to bring the gift of redemption and healing to others. The girl who accepts God’s designed name”Forgiving” can teach others to forgive. The woman who accepts God’s designed name “Healed” can bring healing to the brokenhearted. Your hard trials become lessons of redemption for others.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 puts it this way, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.”

God expects you to choose the right name when you face hard circumstances and storms, but He will not force you let Him redeem your old identity for a new one that can be used to make a difference in this world. So, I ask again: what is your name?